Reincarnation Deal with the Old Basterds
by gridlocker
Summary: Old Gods decide to reincarnate a spy turned scientist to tilt balance in North's favor. But, to keep the other God's satisfied they do it with a bit of twist. After all, Game of Thrones is just a big game to them. All for a good laugh.
1. End of Today, Start of Tomorrow

End of Today, Start of Tomorrow

 _Authors Note: I wrote this a few years ago as an experiment to see whether I can write a literary piece in addition to my usual boring science reports. Not sure how great it is but, here it goes. Didn't bother to do much editing and since I wrote most of it ( approx 10,000 words in about 2 days) it most likely will appear more as a report then anything else. My then girlfriend added the twist you will see in chapter 2. I am currently breaking the humongous text document in individual chapters. Might take a week or two for it._

It was supposed to be just another boring day in Uncle Sam's latest covert anti-biological warfare lab. Just going through the lab reports and proposals submitted by recent graduates who think they are cream-of-crop. (baboons with overinflated ego)

Anyway, before jumping in, I am a 39 year old former CIA operative turned scientist. Why scientist ? It is because of some screwed up op that destroyed most of peripheral nervous system. My team was supposed to observe an extremist cell operating within London. Who knew they were attempting to cook some crazy chemical/biological warfare agent ? Almost like splinter cell. Except extract came too late for my neurons and now, I can't even wipe my own ass.

But, fortunately for me I got an IQ greater then 120 and the farm doesn't like wasting resource. So, a few years in Cal Tech followed by time in a huge basement which doesn't exist, I am running my own lab for beloved uncle Sam. Honestly speaking, I don't have too many regrets - expect that I can't wipe my own ass. My current cover is that of a former marine that got wounded in Iraq. It is an excellent chick magnet. My wheel chair is one of a kind, the big ass German Shepard that functions as my helper and if need be, protector is great. Of course, there is this beautiful agent who is my secretary/handler/protector/watchdog and if need be, the one to put me out of my misery. Not sure how I feel about the last part but I suppose the company can't afford me getting captured. All in all, for a cripple, I can't really complain.

I still retain my battle sharpened training and wits – that is why I am in this situation (likely).

Back to the story. One of the new graduates decided to experiment with one of the more volatile viral agent on his own. Result ? We are in a Resident Evil scenario. However, CIA doesn't have a wicked hot Mali Jovanovich to take care of zombies (read insane peoples hell-bent on killing everyone). Neither do we have a nuke armed to clean a military base. That happens only in movies.

So, as I was being chopped to tiny-mini-itty-bitty pieces by former colleagues, I suddenly appear to regain my former 20 year old body. Full mobility. Complete dexterity. Conclusion ? Adrenalin and all other hormones must have numbed me so much that I am in twilight zone just before death.

Then it happens. A booming voice. "James McGraw !". "Agent McGraw". "Operative 6512 !". "You are not in the twilight zone - just another stage of existence, a different dimension if will". Ah shit – now I am seeing a fucking talking tree. Wait it is more of a man that resembles a tree.

Fuck me !. This is weird. I jerk my head around. Rub my eyes and ears. No. No. No. No. Nein Nein. Always loved that one moment when the racist basterd goes nuts. (Inglorious Basterds for the un-enlightened). The tree-man appears in front of me and says, "James, this is not a dream, this is not a delusion. This is happening right now. Get used to it. Use that training you value so much and ground yourself".

"All right. How do I know I am not going mad ?".

"How about we work on all those math problem you have yet to solve ? That you threw off as impossible ?" - The tree-man offers.

"All right. If this is not in my head, I am going to provide you with a file that we failed to decrypt. The password was never recovered. If you are some super-powerful extra dimensional shit, then you must be able to do it right ?"

"OK - give it to me" - says the being that I am now thinking might be the real deal. Hesitantly I provide him a piece of paper that contains nothing but gibberish. A look at it and he gives me another piece of paper with the solution along with the password. My brain is fast enough to use that password and the provided solution to verify it is correct. (for some reason my brain appears to run impossibly fast) Shit. This is real. This is happening.

I have no choice but to accept the situation. Then, improvise, adapt and overcome. Marine core. Eastwood. Take your pick.

"Now that you seem to have accepted your situation, we need to talk about your future" says the asshole who most likely has my (immediate) future in hand.

"What do I call ? Can't go on referring you as asshole now can I ?" - still have to pretend I am brave. This is what I am trained for.

"We don't have any real names - but some humans refer to us as the old gods ?"

"What like Game of Thrones ?"

"Exactly - George Martin made a deal with those blasted seven and now, all you earthling think of us as fictional beings" - says the asshole.

I then start with "I think I will simply refer to you as gamma the tree-hole..", before being interrupted with a dismissive hand wave, "does not matter what you call us, just focus on the deal". What a magnanimous tree-hole.

We start negotiating. Took some time but to summarize, what happens in the TV series was closer to reality then the books. Something about number of earth humans influencing the GOT reality. Don't really care. Always thought GMMR was a bit demented. Anyway, it seems gamma was a bit peeved at how North - their homeland would get screwed over in the end. The seven, fire god and every other deity was lording over the tree basterds about it. So, gamma decided to insert an agent to switch the scales. Me.

Given that I was a cripple currently sliced 'n diced by insane colleagues, it seemed like I had nothing to loose. But, I am a CIA agent. One thing we are taught is to always question and if possible, squeeze as much juice as you can. Hence, negotiate.

First thing I wrangled was that the lab incident would come of as a freak accident and I would be blame free. Then, I wanted a whole lot of other, lets call it "help" for the mission.

Number 1 - I would retain my skill-set in this new world. Lot of violence and subterfuge to go around.

Number 2 - It is a shitty, primitive place. Barely in middle to late iron age. I wanted to have knowledge and means to introduce late 1900s level of industrial society.

Number 3 - since I was going to a world as zero support, I needed to have a support base. People who would follow me. So, I could influence a maximum of 2 people as my unconditional follower.

Number 4 - This was the best I think. Live to a ripe old age of at least 100 without any natural calamities killing/hurting me.

Number 5 - no other "agents" were to be inserted in this world. Don't want to get screwed up by other players.

But, unfortunately for me, gamma added a clause. I couldn't control who I would enter the world as or for that matter when. Apparently, the other gods wanted to have a bit of laugh. Bah - with all the advantage I got off, I knew I could get things done whether as a noble or a commoner. Should have known when they said "a bit of laugh", they actually meant it.

Finally we shook hands and then I woke up to a whole new world and to my utter dismay, a very different body. It was nothing like I was expecting. The gods and gamma did have a bit of laugh in the end.


	2. Changing Fate

It seems they chose to dump me in this shitty, godforsaken world as Arya Stark. I was hoping they would dump me as Ned Stark. Hell, even Ramsay Snow or Joffrey would be better then this. This wasn't the worst - we were on our way to Kings Landing. The body of Arya was now about to get in a fight with the ultimate psychopath known as Joffrey.

"Options ? Options ?" I start thinking. My brain was racing a million miles an hour. Can't let Nymmeria be killed. Direwolves are useful. The biologist in me was excited to see how their anatomy differed from regular canines. Not now, focus, focus. Joffrey was about to slice and dice this body. Quickly, I ordered Nym to hold position while this body twisted to avoid the sword. A hard hit in the basterds solar plexus, followed by quick jab to the throat and a sharp twist to his arm. Now, I have his sword. Just to be on safe side, I use the sword to make a small gash through the left arm while giving dumb-ass-Sansa a soft hit on her temple. Fortunately for me Micah was already knocked out by Joffrey. Sansa's memory will be pretty well jumbled so, my story will be the only one to go with. Add the nasty looking gash on my arm, Joffrey will be in a world of hurt. Finally, I order Nym to get Ned Stark and other Stark-men to me.

I am thinking the actions of this body as mine but the body itself as Arya Stark's. Not good. I don't want to be a girl. I like being a boy. Shitty gods. I need to talk with them. One thing I know for sure, thinking the body and my mind as separated being will get me killed. Also, I don't have much time left to influence the game – less then 2 years if I remember the show correct. The soldiers are not here yet. Crackerjack Joffrey should have a knife. Let's search him and get something useful. Excellent. A knife and some gold. I quickly hide it inside my tunic. Cash and weapon that no-one knows about is always useful.

At that very moment, I spy Ned Stark - need to think the honorable fool as father - running towards me. I make a scared face and quickly tell him how the horrible prince tried to kill me. The blood gushing through my left arm is proof enough. Sansa lying on the ground is just the icing on the cake. The butcher's boy doesn't even factor-in to his brain. Not sure whether his fatherly concern makes him ignore the peasant or the fact that "high-born" shouldn't care much of low-born. I hope it is the former.

Regardless, I know I need to make things go my way. I start telling him how much I hate the prince and the queen. How much they have turned Sansa against me and the North. That Sansa thinks we are savages. Stark is angry. No - he is furious. I tell him the look queen gives at the wolves - I make him believe that they might try to kill our wolves for retribution. Finally, I tell him - "Father - I do not wish to go to king's landing. I know I won't be safe. My wolf won't be safe. I will return home one way or the other. Please let me go back. I will take both Nym and Lady. Sansa has her head in clouds and can't really be trusted for now. Please." He knows Joffrey and the Queen will retaliate against me. He appears solemn. Deep in thought. And he agrees. I am rather happy.

Right at that point, Lannister men arrive asking what happened. Father was quick to ward them off by saying there has been an accident and King is to be called. Fat king. Quiet a sight. Queen bitch is also there. Honest Ned starts by telling how Joffrey attacked and attempted to kill his little Arya. King is angry at his son. Queen is angry at me. She says I am a liar and needs to be punished. Well she is somewhat right - I am an accomplished liar but in this case it was an excellent example of CIA manipulation for the right reason. I present my case properly. The queen bitch calls both the psychopath and the dumb bitch to provide evidence against me. Sansa attempts to deflect saying she doesn't know anything. I agree with her. Of course, Joffrey hit his own intended right on the temple so that she won't know what happened. Micah agrees with me. Didn't know the kid had it in him. Seems he had a beef with nobles. Might be a useful thing there. My words and injury is good enough to sway things in Stark's favor. The fact that good old Ned had sent a runner to Hoster Tully and gotten himself a 100 man force commanded by Blackfish himself had nothing to do with it. Blackfish and his soldiers were to escort me home.

The king shouts at Joffrey some more about how a tiny waif of a girl managed to disarm and hurt him. It was fun. I then speak to (taunt) Sansa about how she was becoming a bit of traitor. I tell her that if she won't get her head out of Joffrey's ass she is liable to get hurt. Tried to remind her of Tully motto - Family, Duty, Honor. Telling her how she has none of those three might have been a mistake. My face is a bit bruised. At least I didn't hit her. Of course, I did tell her I was going to train Lady as a proper wolf. Hunting and killing my enemies. Arya's enemies. She became rather mad. Not really my concern though. I did tell her to be careful and that I would always consider her as a sister even if she was the worst sister in the world.

Then our parties diverged. King's party along with Sansa headed towards the capitol. My party, escorted by the Blackfish headed back to Winterfell. Now, you might be wondering why didn't I warn Ned about his possible (certain) fate ? First, I didn't think of the fool as my father. My dad was a Airforce pilot - not a buffoon who thought himself above commoners. Second, changing things too much would be risky. Matter of fact, Ned Stark had to be die or at least imprisoned to start the Game. I tried to bring Sansa back to Winterfell with me but the stupid, vapid girl wouldn't agree. She was determine to be a queen.

I was still running on adrenalin high. I was yet to comprehend my situation. That tree-bastard had dumped me in this world as a girl. Being a girl was the worst of it – being a female in a world where having tits and cunt meant you were cattle to be traded was infinitely worse. A family lead by honorable fool and short-sighted bitch of a mother was not good. Now, all I had to do was change it. Is it the time to say – Oh God, Oh God kill me now ?


	3. The North and Me

_AU: Still same old passive style of story writing. Never really been good with literature._

On our way back, we did encounter the Freys. Fortunately, Late Lord Walder was down with diarrhea or some other aliments and as such, we were allowed to pass unimpeded. "We take our toll" - I wasn't going to marry any of these weasel faced shits. Fuck – I wasn't going to marry any of the primitive savages in this Game of Thrones world for that matter. Need to make sure the House of Frey goes extinct in near future. Having a traitorous snake in your own backyard is never a good idea.

Within a month of our trek from Freys, we had Winterfell in sight. However, I had a different thing in mind. Time for some sweet talking.

"Uncle - we need to go a bit further then Winterfell for now" - I whisper to Blackfish. "Pray tell me why little Arya ?" He retorts with a raised eyebrow.

I start talking about the encounter with Joffrey. I tell him that I wasn't entirely honest about what happened. "They told me to watch my back - you never know when an assassin's blade might find you". I do not know what they might plan or do but I need someone to watch my back. I tell him that. With a slightly apprehensive look, I voice my thought, "Truth be told they scare me - both the queen and Joffrey. I need something to keep myself and my brothers safe."

Blackfish gets an ugly glint in his eyes and asks - "Then where are we going ?" His voice has a hard edge, almost as if he wants to go and gut the royals.

"Castle Black - Jon hasn't taken his vows yet. He is my brother. I don't want him there and I trust him to protect me"

"Catelyn will have my hide but I suppose that is a proper enough plan" says Blackfish.

We send half of Blackfish's soldier to Winterfell and the rest of us ride hard to Castle Black just in time to stop Jon from taking his oath. It took a bit of persuasion but he agrees to come home with me. I think there was a bit of fear in his eyes about Lady Stark's reaction but that woman and her follies aren't really my concern. On a sidenote, I was able to persuade Samwell Tarly that staying in Winterfell might help him get back in his father's good graces. He is a smart fellow and people like that are always in short supply around here.

Surprise, Surprise - Tyrion the imp was still in the castle. Seems the imp was planning to stay for a week more then us. Apparently a visit to moletown for old-fashioned whoring was in order. Now that was a dangerous opponent – if it wasn't the fools brotherly love for Jamie, I would have tried to sway him to my side. He can't be eliminated from the game yet because his role is pivotal to stop Stannis from getting Kings Landing. After that, who knows ? Either a win him over – truth about Tysha and Jamie's role might do it – or, failing that a quick termination.

Another reason for arriving here at Castle Black was to raid it's library. I knew they had some decent manuscripts regarding the others and some blueprint for seize weapons. No point in letting these criminals and degenerates horde knowledge, right ? Together with Micah, we loaded every decent manuscript in one of the carts. After that, a tripwire was placed to start fire in the library. Not a major fire. They should be able to contain it easy enough but the theft would be covered. We were about a days march from Castle Black when we saw smoke coming up. Excellent. That might even do some structural damange. Hope Mance Rayder's force will have a easy time getting in.. I want wildlings to be safely inside the wall. Deny the Walkers foot soldiers. Give the Free Folks a deal they can't refuse. While I do have a more elegant plan for Night Watch, this is a bit of preemptive strike. If my actual plan doesn't work then the already weakened fort will be destroyed by the wildlings who would be much easier to talk to.

I had my brother (first loyal soldier) with me. Valuable manuscripts. Blackfish was coming to appreciate my maturity. I was somewhat able to get them thinking I was touched by the Gods or something similar. Simply telling them how I had a other worldly feeling when attacked by Joffrey or how my hands moved to strike/disarm the prince got them thinking of gods, old and new. Things were looking up.

Soon enough, Winterfell was in sight. The library tower looked burnt. It meant the hired killer had already made his move. Hopefully, Cat-bitch won't be there. A quick check and I had less then 8 month for Ned's execution and things to go ape-shit. Good enough.

It was a happy reunion. Myself, Jon and rest of them. I didn't feel particularly jubilant or anything but still smiled. We all sat together and I told the story about Joffrey. Of course, I did embellish things a bit. Painted the Lannister in a more darker light. Made these fools understand the threat level was high. The idea that Bran was already attacked and now, I was in their cross-hair didn't sit well with them. It was a bit tough to make them see things my way but, I prevailed. Theon in particular was vocal about calling banner. Filthy warmonger.

Plus side, I got about a 100 men as my personal guard. Down side ? My movement was constrained. Having a guard following every second was not fun. So, I decided to improvise. I coerced Jon to head to the whorehouse and gather some of the younger bastards and newer whores (read women who don't want to be a prostitute). The idea was to train them as my personal guard. I made him swear not to tell Robb and especially Theon about this plan. The prostitute Ross hadn't left Winterfell yet so, I managed to convince her to stay put. Made her the owner of the brothel, and in return she would keep an eye out for anything interesting.

I had Jon training with Blackfish constantly. Robb and Theon – they didn't really care much. They were fated to die anyway. Since the Septa wasn't around and Luwin didn't care about girls, I was largely left to my own device save the bodyguards. My primary concern was to plan for the future. Getting my troops ready along with fortifying Winterfell sounded like an absolutely marvelous idea. So, I started to devour books on history of Winterfell. It seemed the castle had plenty of hidden tunnels, escape routes and so forth. Time to catalog them all. But - keep them all to myself for now.

East wing of Winterfell castle had always been empty. So that's where my recruits were stationed. No one was allowed entry except for myself, Jon, Bran, Ricon, the recruits and the wolves. When Robb attempted to enter, I gave him a sob story about being embarrassed to show my recruits to the great Robb Stark. He bought it hook, line and sinker. A bit of ribbing from him and Theon was all I got. It was a good enough trade off for the secrecy I required.

Loyal soldiers are always useful. Jon had already given me an oath of fealty. Micah was coming along nicely. It seems he was from Dreadfort and had suffered at the hand of Bolton. His parents were killed for not paying enough tax. Poor kid wanted revenge on the bastard. I was happy to oblige. More importantly, the kid wanted to make sure another Micah didn't happen. Good sentiment. Not sure how feasible that was but we could try. The former whores - 5 of them were coming along in a somewhat sedate pace.

Blackfish had given me 20 of his soldiers - apparently they had no family to speak of and nowhere to go. After extracting a vow of fealty, I had them start training. I tricked Robb into giving me 30 soldiers from Winterfell's armada. I was training them to be officers. Then there were another 30 teenagers I collected from the streets of Winterfell who would be trained as my personal intelligence agent. The moment Robb was out of Winterfell, I would do a soft-takeover of Winterfell. I would be the Leader-of-North.


	4. Getting North Ready – I

Getting North Ready – I

Then, just like that we got a raven saying Ned Stark has been imprisoned. Robb couldn't wait to call the banners and rush of as the grand war hero. In my usual fashion, I started to talk to all the lords about how taking their heirs and even their second sons to battle might be a bad idea. Getting Karstark to leave one of his son in Winterfell was particularly important. He might be glad to have an heir left alive if the Kingslayer gets his son like in the show. I had my retainers whisper into every ears they could. End result? Just about all the lords left one of their sons in Winterfell. Given that each little lord would have their own retinue of soldiers, with a bit of sweet talking, I would have a decent sized army in no time. Jon already reported that, after counting the number of second sons staying back plus their associated soldiers, we were hosting upwards of 1,500 men.

We also had gotten Robb to promise that he would send updates regarding the war effort every other week (or as relevant). I also had him convinced that Catelyn was a rather emotional woman without a head battle-field tactics and as such, might engage in unauthorized actions. The capture of Tyrion Lannister was sufficient proof. In a round about way, I had him determined to remand any high-value-prisoner to Winterfell itself. Simply telling the would-be-king how no southern force could reach deep inside Northern territory was enough. The idea that keeping HVTs in battle camp would simply increase risk of attack on his person was another motivating factor.

It was a tough-sell to have him leave Jon in Winterfell with me but after countless arguments, Jon as the military commander of Winterfell. Not really. I wasn't going to let anyone command my castle.

As he was leaving, I isolated him and asked "What if the Lannisters manage to sneak off some soldiers through sea? - I will need soldiers to patrol and protect North." The naive fool was rather befuddled. He was insistent on the impossibility of a sea incursion. After pointing out that our enemy possesed a substantial navy, he agreed to let me have 1000 soldiers and at my request they would be from different houses. I also talked him to not let anyone (except a select few Lords that were firmly in Stark camp) know he was leaving additional force behind. Pointing out that Lannister shit gold and people are rather attached to gold did the trick.

So, now I had around 3,000 soldiers. 500 of them were from Winterfell. 1000 were mixed bunch. There were those 1,500 left behind with various lordlings. Even if our enemies were to know Robb had left behind a 1,000 man strong force behind, they wouldn't know about the lordling's retinues. From the Winterfell soldiers, 100 were being trained as officers by myself.

Finally there were all those orphans, teenagers and former whores that I had sequestered – they were not being counted in any roster. They would be the start of my intelligence agency and deniable operations. Now, what next?

"The plan"

The answer was rather simple. Get ready for unconventional warfare. Insert my agents into possible enemy camps. Bolton. Karstark. Dustin. Barrowton. Find a way to get in touch with Free-Folk. Sooner or later, Stannis and his Red witch will come. I won't have enough men to take them head on. I need to have some assassins ready. Fortunately for me, I knew the location of a Faceless man. I knew where he would be coming. This time around, the Lannisters wouldn't have time to detain Yorren – he wasn't going to wait for me.

If I had enough time – if only those tree-holes, Old basterds, Old gods whatever you want to call them had dropped me in a different avatar with a few year head start, I could have done things very differently. Given enough time, I would have instituted a proper military system, a school for squad-on-squad fighting. Improvements the mining and smelting system could have been done to make better weapons and armor. For all I care, a simple buildup of supplies to get ready for war might have helped me a hundred folds. BUT – here I am in a girls body, dealing with a military that acts more like a militia made out of half-starved farmers, no decent communication system, hunters being used as scouts and finally a vulnerable, undermanned castle as military base.

Regardless, since I did not want to think of what might befall onto me (especially when in a girls body) if North were to loose or heavens forbid, the Bolton's were to takeover, failure was not an option.

For all point and purpose Arya Stark was a 9 year old girl. Everyone in Winterfell, except for the Stark children, my personal recruits and a few other associates saw that as the only truth. Unless I make the men – especially the lordlings and their soldiers see there was more to me then the "Arya Stark" shell, I was going nowhere. I figured I oughta challenge one of those fools – preferably the biggest, meanest SOB among them to a no holds bar duel. Nothing like a proper beat-down to establish dominance among uneducated rabble.

It was rather easy. I had Jon call them – all 1,500 soldiers and their lordlings. The moment they were informed I was in charge, the biggest (physically) idiot challenged my position with, "Lady Stark – you need to be inside doing your sewing not out here playing with men. A little too young to play with men don't you think?"

"Are you trying to say something to me little man?" - I fire back.

"Why you little ..." - his retort is cut short by his lord – a Karstark with, "That's quiet enough of you Dobbs. No need to be unpleasant" and turning towards me, "Lady Arya, apologies my man wasn't particularly polite but he is still right. You shouldn't include yourself in affairs of men".

I knew these dumb bastards didn't really mean anything but still pretending to be peeved snarled back with, "Doesn't matter how you put it Lord Karstark – both you and your man have questioned my honor. I do not have any choice but prove myself. One of you will chose a weapon and face me in the sparring ground. You win, I will serve your wine for next week else you swear to follow my orders."

As he mumbles and gets red-faced, I prod him some more with "Can't fight a 9 year old can you? Afraid you will loose?".

Just like that he pulls a training sword and runs towards me. Despite dropping me off as a girl, the old basterd seems to have heightened my reflexes, strength and I still retain my former training. His movements were clumsy, unrefined. A slight twist of my body and the fool is laying down with my sword pointed right at his throat. I hear whispers going around – seems they did not expect a 9 year old to beat a man grown.

At random I pick 2 men to attack me simultaneously. Again, I am victorious. I am getting appreciative nodes all around. All the men appear to respect me. As previously decided, Jon speaks up with -

"Men. Listen to me. I am Jon Snow of House Stark. My little sister Arya Stark, this tiny 9 year old girl standing before you wasn't always the best at combat. Yes she was trained by Lord Stark for both knife and bow, but her martial ability came after being attacked by the crown prince Joffrey. No one knows how that happened. We only know that it happened. The godswood was especially cold that day, almost as if the Old Gods were doing something. Winter is Coming. It seems, the gods have granted Arya the gift of battle so that North will be ready for the Winter to come. Who is with me?"

For some reason, a strong, cold wind blew past right at that time – was it the old basterd lending a helping hand? - regardless the men were sold. The soldiers and the lordlings truly believed in me. Maybe getting things rolling would not be that hard. I also need to show my displeasure to the old basterds for how I was cast upon on this world.

Speaking of Jon, just before Robb left, I had a detailed talk with Lord Reed. It wasn't easy but he finally talked about the truth of Jon's birth. Apparently, not only Rhaegaer was a rapist but the damn Targ forced Lyanna to marry him. So, Jon has both ice and fire in him. Jon was understandably shocked. I would have to get Maester Aemon down here from Castle Black. Additionally, Reed agreed to alert me the moment Yorren pass through the Neck. Additionally, his children Meera and Jojen would be coming by. No matter what, I wasn't going to send Bran beyond the wall. Let the grown ups do the dying – Bran was just a kid.


	5. Getting North Ready – II

AU:

 _iitrnr_ _: Arya, Mycah and Joeffry incident happened at Trident. And, you are right it doesn't make sense for Arya's party to head south towards Harroway's town, northwards to Twins and then merge onto King's Road. I had to add the Twins just to start Arya-Frey feud a bit early. Never liked those Freys. But again, the whole show doesn't have too many likeable characters save Arya. They are all either honorable fools or morally bankrupt. And we all love the show – what does that say about us ? Something to ponder upon._

 _iitrn: As for the writing style, it probably won't improve much. Never had a flair for creative writing, only sciences._

 **Getting North Ready – II**

Ready the North – my North, my country, my home wasn't an easy task. Initially, when I was dumped in this world the Old basterd, changing the fate of Westeros in general, North in particular would be a monumental task. Right now, it seemed to be a tough challenge but not an impossible one.

Getting the military in shape was coming along nicely. Having targets painted in the likelihood of Lannisters, the Royals and other Westerland nobles in general seemed to motivate the men pretty well. Not only that, I had rounded up a number of bards from surrounding area. Soldiers do need their entertainment. Those bards were explicitly instructed to sing praises about North in general and House Stark in particular. By the time their training was over, Winterfell would have a garrison of 3,000 soldiers devoted to Northern cause. Some of the more inventive and loyal bards were dispatched to other towns as my very own propaganda machine. Keep the general populace informed of the war in such a way that their mentality instead of resenting their liege lords, they would be supportive.

In terms of equipments, I wanted to standardize armors and weapons but given the limited time frame, it simply wasn't possible. Despite being rich in natural resource, lack of incentive on part of local lords meant no one had thought to start exploiting said resource. Maester Luwin was already coordinating with other Maester and their liege lords/castellans to mark down the location for possible mining. Steel was in short supply – so we would need to open more iron mines. Coal mines were also a priority.

Timber logging was increased around Winterfell – some of the fortification had fallen to disrepair and there was no time to get stone nor did I have patience to make concrete. Wood could be used for temporary patch job. Concrete was on my to-invent list.

Speaking of military, I had done something a bit questionable and totally crazy from Westerland point of view. Given the diverse composition of military – we had soldiers from every house in North, mountain men to crannogmens – flying sigils for them all seemed pointless. It might be a bit corny, but Northern Defense Force sounded an appropriate name. After explaining that their primary purpose was to defend North from southern forces and as such, they should put aside house difference and simply focus on being the hammer of North, everyone settled down despite some grumbling. They flew a flag depicting "N" with "For the North" written beneath it.

The rag-tag group of teenagers, ex-whores and orphans I rescued were a separate story. Segarated in the East Wing, they were being taught CIA trade craft. Instead of focusing on brute force combat style, I taught them martial arts from Earth focused on quick, silent killing or incapacitation. Serrated knifes, garrotes, fast acting poisons were all standard issue. Language class would have to implemented soon. My goal was to create a number of covert teams that would operate inside the heart of enemy. A part of me did feel bad about recruiting orphans – some of them were as young as 13 - I was not going to send them in hostile environment until they hit 16 or more. I wasn't going to sully my conscience with child soldiers just because it was Westeros. Training underage children and planning to deploy them at 16 was already bad enough. Let the spider use child soldiers – that criminal will get his comeuppance soon enough.

I was planning on at least 5 detachment:

* Kilo – the would operate in Kings Landing. Sansa won't be allowed in the claws of those monsters for too long even if I think she is an airhead.

* November – operate within North itself. Monitor possibly hostile lords. The Bolton's come in mind.

* Echo – forward detachment that would stick with the main offensive force. These operatives would be key in exterminating the Freys.

* Romeo – They Tyrells do need to be monitored. Low priority.

* Bravo – Dragon queen is a possible threat. A very big one. Monitor only.

While I was thinking of all the to-dos, Micah came in with the newest status report. These primitive fools had no idea what an after action report meant or what state of union is. I took it upon myself to have someone generate a status report on Winterfell. Basically, it dealt with the military readiness, training level, food supply, population, crime and anything that might affect the safety of my castle. It wasn't easy. I had to brow-beat the Maester and every other servant for it. Servants knew what was going on inside the castle and town, but since they didn't have proper education they couldn't really summarized. The Maester, while a nice guy was simply fixed in his way. Trying to find a middle ground for them wasn't easy. Eventually, I simply brought one of my officers and simply ordered him to act as a middle man of sorts.

The report brought by Micah showed an issue that had so far been deeply neglected. Food Supply. It was horribly low. We had less then 3 month supply left. I quickly started writing letters to allied lords to send extra food to Winterfell. Another agent was dispatched to White Harbor to assess the possibility of buying food from free cities. A few unemployed civilians headed to the bite as new fishermen. A few fishing boats had to be commissioned but it would be worth it. Lack of a proper port and shipyard was frustrating. The idea that a single house controlled the sole harbor of North was simply appalling. How could the Starks be so stupid? Opening a Naval base in Flint's finger was a must. Another base in Three sisters was also a possibility. Given that Flints had sided with Bolton, I had every intention of removing them the Finger. With those two Naval bases, ND F's force projection capability would increase exponentially.

Old basterd had filled my head with food preservation techniques and I was quick to write manuals in "idiot proof format". A rather scathing raven saw its way to Robb detailing how badly he depleted Winterfell's food supply. If we aren't attacked for next 4 months, we should be able to increase food depot to last a 3 year siege at current population. Of course, when the Iron born attack, we will have to open gates for refuge from nearby village. I have already sent messengers alerting the village elders about state of war and that they are welcome to Winterfell for safe harbor.

Dragon glass was a must to combat the others. But how to dragon glass in large enough quantity? Also, is it possible to aerosolize that glass and just spray it where those others will be? That would simply things quiet a bit. Minimal death on my end, maximum fatalities for the enemy. Perhaps coat it over bullets and spray .50 caliber rounds all over them? They don't appear to have any real combat strategy so it might work. If we can save the wall, mounting a bunch of machine gun on top of it would work great. On that note, I need to find a way to bring the alchemist from Kings Landing to Winter Fell. Dumping shitload of wildfire over the approaching hoards would be a sight to see.

Some of my agents stationed at White Harbor brought a number of southern refuges – mainly former traders and whores. Apparently the whores were from Baelish's whorehouse and were in a rather bad shape. I had them confined in one of the guest wings and thoroughly interviewed to make sure there were no spies. The kings landing team – kilo – had been living with them for almost a month and a half. At this point, team kilo had gotten a pretty good hang of how to act in south and were somewhat passable in there "southern" act. Once their training was complete, King's Landing was going to get a wake up call.

Next, I deal with Nights watch and Kings landing.


	6. Taking Over the Night Watch

_AN: I haven't bothered to upload any new chapters lately because I was honestly put, bored. I am uploading a new story for Game of Thrones and Harry Potter crossover with Lord Voldemort as main character. Voldie won't be a complete bastard just a bit of jackass._

 _Newer uploads shouldn't take too long but I am to a particularly creative one when comes to fictions so if anyone wants to take my stories and add more dialog etc., go for it. Just give credit where credit is due, Don't change the characters too much, PM me before you do so._

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Taking Over Night Watch

Night Watch Composition

Rangers: 300 (Castle Black:150, Shadow Tower: 100, East-watch: 50)

Builders: 200 (Castle Black: 100, Shadow Tower:70, East-watch: 30)

Stewards: 330 (Castle Black: 250, Shadow Tower: 30, East-watch: 50)

Total: 830

The wight in Castle Black would attempt to kill the Lord Commander sometimes in next few weeks and I wanted Longclaw. So, I took a 20 man team of my personal army towards Castle Black while another 30 man team was stationed below Moat Calin to intercept and detain Yorren. As luck would have it, the wight attacked when I was having dinner with the Lord Commander. For some reason, both Allister Thorne and Mormont were there. Perhaps it was to convince the helpless, naive 8 year old Stark to send more men to their useless, outdated order. Misogynistic shits truly thought they could manipulate me – ha like that could happen. But again, I am or at least was a misogynistic bastard until the old basterds decided to screw my life over, so can't really blame them for trying. Regardless, it didn't matter to me, not here, not now. I simply stepped aside and let the wight have fun. As the other black brothers rushed in, it was a carnage. I had previously instructed my soldiers to avoid any action unless absolutely necessary so, they were safe. Only after 20 crows were dead (including Thorne and Mormont), did I use fire to kill the wight. Of course, Longclaw, which the old commander had only half-drawn, was already swiped away.

The men of Night Watch were sufficiently shaken by what happened. The iron was hot and it was time to strike. One of my soldiers had already secured Maester Aemon. All raven – except for those meant for Winterfell were locked up. They had no first-ranger, no lord commander. While they were burning up the bodies, I stood up in front of the fearful men and prepared to give the speech of my life.

"Men of night-watch. You just saw an undead come to life and kill 20 of your fellow brothers. You are all understandably shaken. Distraught. Fearful. There is no shame in that. Anyone who says they do not fear death is either a fool or a liar. Just a few month ago, the crown prince had his sword pointed at me and promised to remove my head. I learned fear. Moments ago, when the wight attacked us, I learned fear. But, I survived. You survived. That is all that matters. Now, the question is what shall you do, what shall we do? You are all sworn to protect mankind from darkness. Perhaps these wights are the darkness. I am not certain but it seems more likely. Join me and I will help you. As a Stark of Winterfell, I swear I will defeat this darkness. A single wight defeated 20 of you – 20 brave, experienced black brothers. Join Winterfell and North will stand with you. Join me and you shall have your vengeance, avenge your family." Crappy motivational speech but well, it should be good enough for these buffoons.

And a final, "Who is with me?"

I had already taught my soldiers what to do.

"Stark". "Stark". "Stark". My soldiers screamed. They banged the pommel of their sword against ground.

The night watch followed. Slowly, the noise reached a crescendo. It didn't matter that an 8-year old girl was standing in front of them. All that mattered was that they had hope. I had an army by my side. It was composed of mainly cut-throats, murderers and rapists, but still they were organized. They knew how to fight. All I had to do was direct their fury.

However, getting the Crow's on my side wouldn't be the end of it. It might even not be worth it because my next step was to get Mance Rayder and his wildling army. No matter how you put it, a hundred thousand fighting force, despite being poorly armed, was not something to scoff at. The wight attack and my carefully planned response had eliminated most of the radical crows, leaving low ranking, follower crow here in Castle Black anyway. The other two castle, East-watch-by-sea and Shadow Tower had a combined strength of only around 330 men – 150 rangers with rest as builders and stewards. Given that I had sent a raven to Winterfell ordering 500 well trained soldiers to be dispatched for Castle Black post-haste, by the time rest of the Crows would arrive here in Castle Black to chose the new Lord-Commander, force disposition would be in my favor.

2-weeks after wight attack

Castle Black was full with men of Night watch from the other two castles and also the men from Winterfell who arrived Castle Black just a day prior. Given that just about everyone in Castle Black had see the wight kill their fellow soldiers, gossip was ripe about the white walkers and the others. My men were also spreading rumors about how only a Stark could fight the darkness just like they did during the Long Night. With almost half of crows having seen the wights, the remaining half were quick to believe the return of others.

Then the per-election talk started. It was almost like the presidential debate we had between Obama and Romney, except a lot of swearing, drinking and again, swearing. Swords were drawn too. The commander of East-watch by sea, Cotter Pyke, Denys Mallister of Shadow Tower were so far the only one to forward their name as the new lord commander. The death of three senior commander in Castle Black seemed to have created a leadership-void leaving two clowns as the possible future lord commander. I needed someone who had seen and lived through the wight attack to as the Lord Commander, not these two buffoons who most likely would not believe the truth about wights until they were to see the evidence by themselves.

The debate was on going. Mallister was proposing, "My friends, I have lead Shadow Tower over thirty three years. With me, my men have flourished. We have killed many wildlings, stopped them from crossing the wall. Chose me and I shall continue to do so!"

Cotter Pyke gave a derisive laugh and said, "Bah old man – you talk about leading for thirty three years. You talk about your men flourishing. Your men – the men of Shadow Tower? Those are your men aren't they? Those are the men you are talking about. And killing wildlings? Are they the enemy we face now? Haven't you heard the stories of wights right here in Castle black? What good will killing wildlings do when the wights seem to be coming back? You are a fool aren't you? You still talk like a lord. Brothers, this man seems to have forgotten that being a black brother means you give up all your titles, but this man seems to think of himself as a lord. Lord Mallister the great. We are not your men Lord Mallister. We are the men of night's watch."

The iron islander was good. His last master stroke of how Denys Mallister thought himself of as Lord Mallister first and black brother second had all the crows bristled. But still, no one actually asked the right question. Someone needed to ask Pyke what he intended to do regarding the wights and white walker, but it seems all the crows were too stupid to do so. And, neither me nor my soldiers could do so without being invited as the whole thing was a Night Watch matter.

Just as Mallister growled and tried to form a comeback, Maester Harmune, who served as Cotter's maester in East-watch, asked, "Well, Commander Pyke, what do you intend to do about the wights and white walkers?" Looks like the maester and the commander have actually orchestrated this thing well enough.

"Aye – I do have a plan" and this is where he screwed up. "The first thing I intend to do is find whether this wight thing is real or just something these drunk fools.." Before he could complete his statement, the closest black brother slammed his head against the wall and growled, "You fucking iron islander, does this look like a drunken imagination to you?" while showing a wicked looking cut that went through his face. Looked more like an ice burn then that made by steel sword.

So, politics gave way to angry screaming and brawling. It was somewhat amusing, a bunch of grown up men fighting like a pack of hyenas. After letting the dogs fight a bit, I ordered my soldiers to start banging their swords against shields and thus, brought things to a somewhat angry calm down. "Well, all of you Night watch seem to be incapable of doing your duty. Commander Mallister here is more interested in playing politics and lordy-lord then his duty. Pyke intends to disregard something that over 400 black brother saw with their own two eyes. And, the rest of you are happy enough to stay there like ships. That doesn't look good for the future of Night's watch now does it?"

A chill permeates through the hall. Maester Aemon, who had so far stayed quiet, asks, "What do you mean young Stark?"

I respond, "Starks of the old created the Night's Watch to protect the realm of men from white walkers and the wights. What will Starks of today do when the same watch fail its duty? What happens to a guard dog that lets thief walk by?"

One of my guard sniggers and says, "Put 'em down milady. That's what we do – no need to waste food on a useless dog."

I give a vicious grin that probably looks out of place in an 8 year old's face and say, "My friend here is right. Food is precious. Shape up or be put down."

One of the more vocal crow shouts, "Who do you think you are girl? You are nothing bitch. We exist beyond the politics of seven kingdom. We do what we want and there is nothing anyone can say about it."

"Wrong. The wall was made Brandon Stark. The wall exists on Northern soil. The wall belongs to House Stark. Night's watch was created by the Starks. You are simply the instrument against the dark. Fail to perform well, and you will be replaced."

The same fool gave an almighty war cry and ran towards me with a dagger drawn. Given how he was telegraphing his moves, I easily performed a judo throw and pressed a sword against his jugular. The men, especially those of Night's watch are too stunned to do anything. Not sure whether it is because one of their number tried to kill a child or the said child took down the man without any effort. No matter what, this was godsend for me, "Isn't this wonderful? A man of night's watch attempts to kill Arya Stark, Stark of Winterfell and all the crows here do nothing?".

Mallister comes forwards, "Please my lady, this man acted on his own. The rest of the watch had nothing to with this. There is no need to condemn everyone. We do not wish ill on the lady."

One of my guards, the Karstark heir, Torrhenn gritted, "Doesn't mean you weren't thinking of it. All you crows have so far been useless. You do nothing to stop the wildlings from savaging our lands and now both of these fools who try to be Lord Commander want to do nothing about the wights. They even tried to kill a Stark. Order of vultures and cowards, that is what this watch has become."

An up and coming ranger, Mort Snow, then spoke, "Lord Torrhen, you are right in that our order is not what it should be. Both the commanders of East-watch and Shadow Tower have proven themselves inefficient. However, instead of gutting the watch, let us change it. I will stand as the next the lord commander and if chosen, I swear upon my life that the watch will live up-to its name. Protect the realm of men from the dark."

An interesting development to be sure. But, just to drive my point home, I slowly severed the fool's jugular while staring at the men of the watch. "Well, Mort Snow, your words do give hope for the watch but every single black brother here should understand, cross a Stark, you will end just like this fellow here." Just when the hall started to break down into chatter, I continued, "Best you lot chose a Lord Commander soon enough or I might chose for you. The others are onto us and I shall not have my North destroy because the watch can't handle itself."

Then, we, as in myself and the people from Winterfell, left for the kitchens letting the crows handle themselves. Hopefully, they would chose a decent enough commander, one who would go with my plans – otherwise, I would have to completely wipe out the Night watch.

It took them half a day to chose and surprisingly, Mort Snow, a no-name was the new lord commander. The general scuttlebutt was that Mort grew up in Mole's town and was a decent swordsman. Well liked, amicable fellow. Not particularly exceptional, but also not particularly bad. It meant he was either extremely lucky or an excellent politician. Luck is fleeting at best and politicians? There are a few things I hate more then politician. However, this does mean the watch will play ball with me for now.

Meeting with Mort

Soon after the elections, the new Lord Commander requested a meeting with myself. Given the damage done by the wight on Jeor Mormont's private dinning room, Mort had set up an impromptu office near the kitchens. Perhaps the new commander had his priorities straight – warmth from kitchen fire and more importantly, easy, quick access to food? Good food can be useful as a bribe, my years in Iraq and Afghanistan had taught me that.

Mort started with, "My lady, I sincerely thank you and your men for helping us during the wight attack. Night watch had grown complacent and if it wasn't for your men, our casualties would have been much higher."

This whole diplomacy, nicety shit is boring isn't it? "Not to worry Lord Commander – those wights are our enemies just as much as they are yours. We did what had to be done, same as you. The only thing that remain is what is to be done next."

"Aye – you are right my lady. Looking at you I almost forget I am talking to an 8 year old girl" he smiled. Just when he was about to continue, Maester Aemon barged in with, "Lady Stark, Lord Commander – we have a raven from Riverrun. I think it is best if Lady Stark were to read it first" and hands me the parchment.

I have a gut feeling as to what this is about. The letter is short and to the point, written by some maester on behalf of King Robb Stark, first of his name. Basically stated how Joeffery is a bastard born of incest and he illegally executed our father, Eddard Stark. For that, North was now an independent country and he was simply letting the watch know, "the wall exists on Northern soil". The dumb shit does have some brain after all. Pretending to be a bit numb, I hand the raven to Lord Commander of night watch.

He gets a grave expression on his face and says, "I am sorry for your loss my lady."

Doing my best to appear teary and somewhat broken, "We knew Lannisters might try something. Father was told Jon Arryn had been poisoned by the Lannisters and so, he wished to see justice done. Robb rode to war to bring father home but seems Joeffery the bastard is determined to have his war." I sniffle a bit and continue, "Lord Commander, do you know what this means?"

He gives a confused look and says, "Pardon me my lady?"

Maester Aemon is the one to continue, "What the lady means is that since King Joeffery has been declared born of incest, he cannot be the lawful heir of throne. Law of succession is clear, Stannis should be the king but Lannisters won't let him. Robb Stark has declared himself King-in-the-north. Now there are three kings. Balon Greyjoy won't stay silent for long and will probably declare himself king as soon as he can seeing how the throne will be weak. Lady Stark, or I should say Princess Arya Stark is implying Westeros is now embroiled in war and there won't be any help for the night's watch until it is too late."

Mort Snow grew up as a commoner and so, he hasn't had lessons in strategy or warfare. The long term strategy of war escapes him but with Aemon's explanation, he seems to quickly grasp the situation. "What do you suggest we do Maester Aemon, Princess Stark?"

"I have been told that wildlings are up-to something on the other side of wall. On of your former brother, Mance Rayder is organizing them. Perhaps even a King-beyond-the-wall?"

"Only rumors so far but possible. If the wildlings have been attacked by wights, then it is likely they would band together for survival. Mance would know how to lead them. He was one of the best, if not the best ranger we had", said Aemon.

"This is what I will do – my force of 500 men will arrive here to supplement the Night's Watch in. And, Lord Commander, you shall send messengers to the wildlings. However, you will not fight the wildlings. Instead, you shall offer them my terms of peace. Tell them you know about the wights, tell them House Stark is willing to let them come south of the wall provided they won't loot, pillage or plunder. The only condition being that they will have to bear arms against enemies of North – human or non-human. One of my men will have it in writing."

"The men may not like it Princess. We have killed too many wildlings, they have killed too many black brothers", spoke the Lord commander in a hesitant tone.

"Doesn't matter whether they like it or not Lord Commander. The others don't care who you are, wildlings or not. But again, I have 500 men here, another 500 will be on there way from Winterfell in about a month. Night watch has what? 800 men total – of which 300 are fighters. When it comes to that, what the watch likes or does not like matters little to me."

"I will try to reign in the men my princess, but they might still give trouble. After seeing the wight, most should keep their mouth shut but, there are always a few – especially those from Shadow Tower, ready to cause trouble. Commander Mallister has never understood North the way we do and well, it has reflected in his men."

"In that case, break his command structure apart. Shuffle men from Shadow Tower to here at Castle Black, here to there. Move men around in the name of say, friendship and brotherhood. By the time you are done, make sure all of Mallister's loyal men are shuffled around so much they don't know who is where. Start making plans to reactivate some of the other towers. Once the wildlings are on this side, I will start housing them on those towers – no point in letting unguarded road for the others."

"How can we trust the wildlings princess? Do you trust them?" asked the commander.

"It is not about trusting them Lord Commander – it is about trusting their need, desire for survival. I will be marching back to Winterfell tomorrow morning Commander, after that you will see to my suggestion on getting the wildlings. Maester Aemon, you will be riding to Winterfell with me. We are gathering as much scrolls and history books on the others in Winterfell, so you will be more useful there. Send a raven to citadel to send a new maester for Castle Black. And Lord Commander, the leader of my force here, Commander Shaw will coordinate with you on what to do. He will be my liaison with you."

They both node their head, ignoring my apparent age in favor of the commanding tone I have been using. Mort has final question, "Do you think we will get any aid from the other kingdoms?"

"Will they even believe us? Wight attack? White walkers? They might believe wildlings are attacking but quickly ignore that since wildling attack will weaken North. Robb will believe but he won't send his army this way, since I am here and doing what can be done. Stannis might come by but he will ask you to bend your knee and burn the weirwood trees now that he is in cohorts with the red witch. So, for now we are on our own." Both Mort and Aemon bristled when I tell them about Stannis burning weirwood trees. "Let them know about the wight attack but do not tell them anything about the wildling or what we intend to do with them. I will alert Robb about the wights and see whether he can send some more of his army this way."

With that, we called it a night. The very next day, I head home with a guard force of less then 50 men and my two wolf, Nymmeria and Lady. The march wasn't particularly difficult since winter isn't here yet despite all signs indicating winter might be coming sooner then later.

I had taken what remained of Castle Black library (from the fire I caused a few months ago), it's maester and more importantly, around 20 of the more smarter, learned black brother. The crows traveling to Winterfell with me would serve as trainers for my army and in general, enjoy life as free men – I had already given a tacit approval that they are free to do as they wish as long as they were discrete about it. The operative portion of my brain knew the while Mort was well on my side, the rest of the watch was broken in factions. So, removing the faction leaders meant my puppet was firmly in lead and as such, Night's watch would sing my tune. Amongst the 500 men I had left with the watch, there were a few operatives who would clear resistance against Mort and also, make sure Mort totes the line.

All in all, in a span of less then two month, I had the Night's watch in my pocket and a valyrian steel sword to the boot.


	7. Ironborn Attack

_AN: This story is taking a somewhat lower priority compared to Lord Voldemort, Savior of North. In some way, I have found this one a bit more complex. Trying to keep track of all the events, military teams I am creating is not easy for me. Plus my new job has me breaking my head – my boss is a jackass to say the least. Anyway, I will keep updating in a bit of random schedule._

 **Table of Contents**

Arrival in Winterfell 1

Inside First Keep, Arya's office 4

5 week to possible Ironborn attacked 5

4 Weeks to Ironborn attack 5

3 Weeks to Ironborn Attack 5

2 Week to Ironborn attack 6

1 Week to Ironborn attack 7

Week 0, Ironborn attack 8

 **Arrival in Winterfell**

I hadn't realized how comfortable and warm Winterfell was until after spending almost a month in Castle Black. Horrid place. No wonder criminals and rejects were tossed there. Fortunately, I wouldn't have to head back to the wall for a few month at the very least – most of the business could be done by raven. All in all, I was gone from Winterfell for a bit less then 2 month, but many things had happened.

Ned Stark, my so called father (well the father of this body, my shell) anyway, had been executed. Robb was well on his way to Riverrlands to fight the good fight. And, most importantly, my dear brother had sold myself and Sansa, his own sister to Walder Frey for a bridge. That is medieval life for you. Was I going to let that happen? No sir.

Robb's raven detailing the sale of his sister had arrived only a day before me. Accordingly, Walder Frey would be sending his sons meant to marry myself and Sansa to Winterfell with 10 retainers in a month time. Was I going to let a bunch of weasel-faced bastard desecrate my damn castle? No. Was I going to marry anyone? Fuck No. So, I had almost a month to figure out what to do with a couple of Frey bastards – should I simply imprison them? Should I have them killed half-way to Winterfell? Tempting. Imprisoning them might be beneficial but again, there is little use of hostage against Walder Frey considering how many children he has.

Before I could get some well deserved rest, I received an update from my intercept team. Apparently, they had Yorren detained approximately 20 miles from Winterfell, and housed in a hunting cabin. It took me less then 2 hours to reach the cabin. Myself and my so called D-team, or deniable-ops team.

Yorren was a hard nut to crack. I told him some of the prisoners were sent by Lord Stark to Winterfell because the queen meant to kill them and still he was adamant that they be taken to the wall. Only after threatening to simply kill them all and take my choice of prisoners, did he agree on my terms. Not that any of them would live seeing how they had all been juiced up with Ricin. Soviets did have some good idea on how to weaponize ricin as contact poison. They would all die in less then 2 days. My cleaner team would follow them for 2 days and make it look like a bandit attack. That way, everyone will think bandit activity has increased allowing me to force the other so called Lord increase patrols and military readiness in general. Of the 10 prisoners Yorren was transporting, I grabbed only Jaquen and Gendry. Jaquen was obviously going to be useful as a faceless man. Gendry on the other hand would be useful if I ever decide to bring Storm-lands to heel. Both the Baratheon brothers would die one way or the other and I could have Gendry legitimized, after which, he would be my key to Storm-lands.

Now that I had Jaquen in my custody, it was time to call the old basterd's boon of influencing at most 2 person in action. Make the faceless man my assassin. I was going to start a proper intelligence branch for Winterfell. Maybe even call it the Farm for old times sake.

On more martial situation, my military appeared to be flourishing. Recruiters were already busy recruiting more soldiers to replenish the 1,000 men deployed to the Wall. Current garrison of Winterfell was slightly greater then 2,000. It was more then enough to hold Winterfell but was pathetic as an offensive force. Was it possible to raise my military strength to at least up to 10,000? Robb had taken almost 18,000 men with him as he marched South. Apparently, a lot of noble house had been gutted in military terms to get that army mobile. It simply did not make sense to me – no matter how sparsely populated North was, sending 18,000 men south should not destroy the military population. It was absurd.

So, the very next day, I called a meeting between my senior commanders and the heirs of Northern Houses who had stayed in Winterfell. After everyone were settled, I sounded my concern and asked, "Well? Is population of North so little that sending 18,000 men south means we can't raise anymore army? The shithole called kings landing has almost a hundred thousand small folk living – North should have a million men here easily. Are we not counting properly? Or is it something else?"

There was a rather profound silence. Apparently, no one had ever thought of it. Maester Luwin replied, "Princess Arya, questions such as those – they have never been truly asked. Even the citadel hasn't looked at that. Why are you asking such questions my princess? You should be getting ready to meet your betrothed."

That did the trick for me. Stupid old fool has the temerity to discount my question and worse, suggest that I should go be a little bitch. For a fleeting second, I wanted to break the bastard's neck but instead, I fired back in a rather frosty tone, "Maester Luwin, if you have nothing productive to say, then you will keep your mouth shut or I swear by the old gods, I shall sew your mouth shut for you. May be that septa bitch will finally praise my sewing skills?" A bit of laughter spread across the room and I spoke again, "If the citadel hasn't looked at that question properly, then they must be fools of the first degree. You have all heard about the wights in Castle Black – the men that went with me saw those undead. They saw the wights kill over 20 black brothers. By all accounts, the white walkers are gathering beyond the wall and long night is soon upon us. Southern kingdom's won't believe us about the wights or even if they do, they won't send aid until it is too late. It means we have to raise enough men to fight a war on two front, lest we be destroyed. So, I ask you again, can more men be raised for the army?"

The question was aimed more towards the heirs and second sons left here in Winterfell then my commanders – I was trying to provoke them to raise more men for my army. The Karstark heir speaks for them all, "My Princess, it is not that North does not have men, it is just that people live in isolated, tiny villages so far apart, trying to raise a proper army will cause those villages to be completely abandoned or at the very least, half-emptied. Neither of scenario being particularly favorable."

Jon then speaks out, "Well then, why don't we start removing those tiny little villages and make larger villages? Larger villages are easier to defend, easier to keep track of."

Another one shakes his head and objects, "Not that easy to do – first, we don't have the gold needed to make new villages. And more importantly, how do we tell the people to abandon their village for something new?"

For a bit, I want to bang my head against the wall and sharply respond, "Why would we need gold to make villages? There is plenty of wood in the wolfs-wood or whichever forest happens to be nearby. Everything is owned by the Lord for whom the village will own fealty is owed to, so there is no need to pay for raw material. Have the soldiers work as construction crew. The only logistics we need to figure out is food supply."

Luwin, in a low, fearful voice says, "Yes – gold shouldn't be required all that much. All the supply is available right here. Question is, how favorable the noble houses will be to this idea?"

If I could have Robb rubber stamp my plans or better, have that brainless twat decommissioned, I could simply force everyone's hand, but until then I need to play ball with the damn nobles. _The founding fathers truly had the right idea_ _in_ _purging aristocracy from good old USA_ _–_ I thought to myself. So, I plan, "Well, we have heirs or at least the second sons of most Northern houses here don't we? Given that the Lords are faraway in South earning glory, we have enough authority to get the plan rolling. We will start with Winterfell – start telling nearby small folk they can move into Winter town. The land between Winterfell and Castle Cerwyn, have it cleared for farming. Any family that moves to Wintertown can have a farm in there. I want to raise my army by at least 1,000 hands within the next month."

Jon gives me a speculative look and questions, "Arya – we don't have enough men to clear the land."

"Wrong Jon – there are plenty of men. As of now, there are 2,000 soldiers here in Winterfell doing nothing. Have half of them on land duty while the other half either trains or perform guard. Also, let's start training all the women and children here to use bow and dagger. If we ever come under siege, that will give us much needed strength."

"Have women fight? That is blasphemy!" shouted Luwin.

"Do I really need to sew your mouth shut Luwin?" I growl out. "If any of you forgot, I happen to be a girl and I fight very well. And, I am not saying we will send the women to fight in front lines. We are simply teaching them how to defend themselves. It means more hand to protect Winterfell. Do any of you have issue with it?" I follow with by slamming a dagger through the table – a bit of drama never harms.

 **Inside First Keep, Arya's office**

It had been almost a month since my return from the Wall. Things so far have been progressing well enough. On a more fortunate note, the arrival of Frey bastards had been delayed by another month because Robb had captured the Kingslayer, and was going to send the Kingslayer, the Frey bastard plus about 100 Frey soldiers as escort. He must be getting even more stupid with each passing day. Why would he trust such valuable hostages with Freys? Why not assign Winterfell soldiers to guard them? Was stupidity a necessary characteristic when it comes to being a Lord around here?

Apparently, Walder Frey wanted his future good-daughter Arya Stark to be safe and so, the 100 Frey soldiers would have the honor of guarding Winterfell with their life. We will see about that. Time for my deniable ops team – delta team – and another poison – designation P1. P1 was supposed to simulate an intense case of food poisoning. I quickly ordered delta team to rendezvous with the Frey delegation a few miles down the moat, act friendly and start poisoning their food. It wasn't about killing every single one of them – just most of them and their leaders. Whatever soldier remained would be absorbed in my army and I would still have my hostage. Those soldiers would be useful as cannon fodder and perhaps be passed to the watch in the future.

However, that wasn't the end of it. King Robb had done another thing of monumental stupidity – something that I was hoping he would do a bit later. Theon was dispatched as a messenger of "King Robb" to Lord Baelon.

Jon, seemed to be getting along with Maester Aemon. Not having that frigid bitch called Catelyn around was also good for him I think. He had already decided to denounce his targ father as a "rapist scum that didn't deserve a clean death". After a long talk, I managed to convince him that if possible he should start his own house and use a dragon/wolf hybrid as his emblem. We thought it would be the ultimate screw you to the targ. Also, he was already immune to fire. _Take what you can, give nothing back_. At least to that rapist scum. I did tell him about some of my plan regarding the wall, the wights and possible long night. The knowledge that one of his blood, Daenerys had 3 dragon and was rather hostile to Starks had him distraught. He was insistent on developing an action plan to neutralize those dragon. My training was shining on him – he was using modern military terminology more often, better AAR and so forth. I am still not sure how to neutralize Daenerys. All I know is that she is hot – damn this teenage body. Wargs taking control of the dragons is an option. The other option is machine guns. I am leaning towards machine guns. Late 1800s water cooled machine guns aren't all that hard to make. Multiple wargs to control one single dragon, use it to distract the other two and bam bam. We will see.

For now, Theon and the coming offensive by the Ironborn had to take priority. After a quick consultation with Jon and other commanding officers, we estimated Theon will reach Iron Islands in less then two weeks, give another week for them to assemble their fleet and two more week of travel time – leaving at most 5 weeks for North to get ready for an attack. I also had ravens sent to coastal towns and the neck regarding possible ironborn attack. I kept the wording ambiguous. It simply stated that, " _Theon Greyjoy was dispatched in good faith to Iron Island by King Robb, asking Balon Greyjoy for an alliance_ _to counter the naval armada of Iron Throne_ _. However, given the unpredictable nature of ironborns_ _in general and anger Balon Greyjoy holds towards Northmen in particular_ _, North is to be ready for possible attack, signed Arya – The Stark of Winterfell_ ".

The reaction of Winterfell's resident lordlings regarding Theon Greyjoy's return to Iron Island was particularly explosive. The general tone was that King Robb must be going mad or stupid or both. As much as I agreed with the sentiment, letting the anger grow would actually hurt House Stark, so I gave a speech about how the two grew up as foster brothers and while they might trust each other, whatever happens, will be on Balon Greyjoy. So, instead of thinking Robb a mad fool, he would be a naive fool. Good enough for me.

 **5 week to possible Ironborn attacked**

The atmosphere in Winterfell was electrifying. We now had a 5,000 men strong army. Only 2,000 of them had decent training, but the army was loyal to fault. They were all in constant training and so, the oughta be in fighting shape soon enough. Small folk from nearby hamlets had all moved to the newly expanded Winter Town. The promise of land had them working hard to clear the forest like crazy. Soon, there would be hundreds of acres of rich, arable land in the vicinity of Winterfell. But, before that, the Ironborn would have to be taken care of. One of the reason I wanted the forest cleared was to make sure no one could sneak around the castle without me knowing.

 **4 Weeks to Ironborn attack**

On a more diplomatic note, I had three Lannisters as hostages. The kingslayer and his two cousin. Two ravens were dispatched from Winterfell – the first was for Tyrion which basically stated that if my sister, Sansa was harmed in any manner, I would start dismembering the kingslayer. That would ensure he and Cersei will reign Joeffery or at least prevent Sansa from being hurt too much. The second went to Casterly Rock for Kevan Lannister telling him that his sons are safe because Arya stark has been felling particularly generous, which is of course contingent on the well being of her sister and the proper behavior of Lannister army. Gunboat diplomacy is the best kind of diplomacy after all.

 **3 Weeks to Ironborn Attack**

The training of new troops was coming along very well. My new policy of letting the family of troops stay in Winter town meant we had a population of almost 15,000 men, women and children – 5,000 of them being soldiers and rest in women and children. That afforded Winterfell a phenomenal workforce. I had the small folks working round the clock setting up Winter town with permanent houses and fortifications. My long term plans were to set the place up as a proper city with Winterfell as the center.

Training of my special operations team, Kilo, November, Echo, Romeo and Bravo was coming along well. Now that I had Jaquen Hagar as one of my henchmen, he was starting to train some of the younger recruits as faceless men.

So far, only November team had seen any real action and even that was inside North. Despite my worries on how their training wasn't as good as it could have been, they captured Ramsay Snow with phenomenal ease. For now, I had him blindfolded, gagged and confined in the deepest dungeons of Winterfell. No one knew of his presence. Even the guards who feed him were not allowed to speak with him. I even had them wear ear plugs just to prevent Ramsay's scream reach their ears. Ramsay was always chained to the walls and fed a thin gruel 3 times a day. Basically, Bolton knew what I wanted him to know. Ramsay's capture was more of lucky stroke then anything else – November team lead by Jaquen ran across Ramsay and his merry men during their training exercise. As per my standing orders, Jaquen and November team proceeded to terminate them all with the exception of Ramsay. The victory was rather one-sided most likely because my people attacked from a very advantageous position – better weapons, smoke bombs, poisons and of course, a faceless man.

Capture of Ramsay had to some extent forced me to play my hand a bit earlier then I wanted. I was forced to have November team had infiltrate Dreadfort. Jaquen, wearing the face of Ramsay took control of Dreadfort and as such, Roose Bolton from now on knew only what I wanted him to know. This unfortunately, threw a wrench in my plan to save Sansa. I intended to dispatch Kilo team lead by Jaquen to King's Landing as soon as possible and extract Sansa plus as many alchemist as possible. But, since Jaquen was now occupied playing the role of Ramsay, I would have to wait until Kilo was war hardened.

When I read the book or watched the show, I was somewhat curious how the faceless men would get new faces. The show seemed to indicate that a dead person would donate their face to the order of faceless men – the faceless men would carve a dead man's face off right? Apparently, the subject doesn't necessarily have to be dead for a faceless man to wear said subject's face. Jaquen literally tore Ramsay's face off. He actually started a face depository in the dungeon of first keep for future use but that is neither here nor there. Regardless, Ramsay's scream proved one thing – sadist's such as Ramsay Snow can dish out but not dish in. The other thing about faceless men was that they could technically wear a man's face without tearing said face off but apparently that would be more like an illusion then anything.

 **2 Week to Ironborn attack**

Fortification of Winter Town was now good enough that a casual attack force could not break in. It was no where enough to with stand a siege but against Ironborn or even wildlings? The temporary wall was more then good enough. I had received ravens from coastal location reporting increased sighting of Ironborn long ships. The attack was coming sooner then later. Apparently, every coastal lords (or whoever was in charge) had armed their smallfolks and were all getting ready for attack. For now, it was a waiting game.

 **1 Week to Ironborn attack**

The attack was imminent. Flint's at the finger dispatched a raven saying long ships were seen heading upwards towards the Bay of Ice. From what I remembered, Bear Island was attacked by Victarion Greyjoy. So, this was most likely the attack force heading towards Bear Island. All of western coast of North would be under siege within days. The bickering in my solar was rather memorable.

Right after getting the raven regarding long ships heading up North, I ordered my commanders and lordlings to gather for a conversation. The gray rat, Luwin then read the raven out loud after which, Jon spoke out, "This means war has come to our door step. Theon turned his cloak and is now attacking North. At least because of Arya's precautions everyone is ready for those fuckers."

Torrhen Karstark yelled, "Arya – when do we march for battle? If the longships are headed towards Bear Island, there must plenty headed towards Deepwood Motte, Barrowton and Torrhen's Square. We need to move!"

Beren Tallhart, the youngest nephew of Lord Tallhart spoke furiously, "Torrhen's square is where they will hit. I am sure of it. My father was one of the commanders who invaded Pyke – Balon Greyjoy would not have forgotten that. We need to send men to Torrhen's square now."

I then told Tallhart, "I agree with Beren – that is why a 1,000 man host was already dispatched towards Torrhen's square two days ago. They will force march and reach there within a week. If Benfred has taken my orders to heart, the square will easily hold until then."

Beren then yells, "Why wasn't I told? That is my home – I should be there with the army."

Always the loyal brother, Jon slams his hand and orders, "Do not raise your voice Beren – there is a reason why you are here. A reason why you are all here."

I take from there, "Each of you are here for one single reason – making sure your house doesn't fall. Tywin Lannister doesn't believe in honor. He means to win by killing the heads of our houses. You are all here because if your Lords are killed or captured, you can continue your line. War is unpredictable and we will not see good Northern house decimated because of it. Torrhen, your brother was killed in battle against the kingslayer and now you are the heir. What would have happened if both you and your brother were their and were killed? House Karstark would have no male heirs. Same goes for many of you. You are all here to ensure your house does not die out and as such, going to battle without reason will not do. Understood?"

There is plenty of grumbling but it eventually subsides.

Bran is the one to question, "What about Deepwood Motte? Arya, are you planning to send men there?"

Bran is coming along well. Despite being crippled, his brain anything but crippled. _If you loose a part of yourself, another part will grow strong as a substitute it_. I answer, "Not yet – Gawen Glover had sent a raven saying he had raised a host of 1,000 strong and was ready to stand siege. We will station a host of 1,000 men in Tumbledon Tower and if need be, they will march for Deepwood Motte."

Bran again questions, "And Barrowton, anything from them?"

I get an ugly look on my face, "Lady Dustin sent a minimal amount of men with Robb despite being repeatedly asked for more. We are not wasting any men on that bitter old shrew." Barbara Dustin is someone who needs to be eliminated sooner then later. Since the self-righteous prick known as Ned Stark didn't bother bring the bones of self-righteous bitch Barabara's husband, she has been rather cross with House Stark and well, the only good enemy is a dead one. Maybe the Ironborn will do the job for me, eh? The best part is, I had purposefully neglected to send raven to Barrowton about the impending Ironborn attack. It should be fun. If they survive, I will have the bitch in chains for not getting ready for the attack, if they burn, I will have the bitch humiliated post-posthumously.

 **Week 0, Ironborn attack**

Like clockwork, the ironborn attacked in every single location they could, no exception. Winterfell was more then ready. Now that the forest around Winterfell was cleared and Winter town was fortified, trapping Theon would be rather easy. I had constructed a few hidden bunkers outside of the city walls, right in the woods. It was for one single reason only – the moment someone tries to scale the walls they would emerge and crush the enemy. **Boot. Ant. Hammer. Anvil.** Communication was strictly one way. Scouts (who did not know about the bunker) would tell them about enemy location using animal calls. Winterfell would confirm. At the final moment, splat – kill all enemies.

We started receiving ravens about Ironborn attack on Deepwood Motte, Torrhen Square, Moat Cailin and Stony Shores. Fortunately, due to my prior alert and strict orders to raise military readiness, those attacks were dispelled easily. The Moat was already fortified with forces from Winterfell, Neck and White Harbor. Stony shores was mostly evacuated. Patrols looking for possible raiders took care of the few opportunistic ironborn who wanted to grab some thralls or salt-wives.

However, nothing would deter Theon the turn-cloak from targeting Winterfell. He actually brought 200 men to attack my castle believing it would be lightly fortified. No one made it inside alive. The men bunker-ed outside did an excellent job of cutting down the ironborns. Archers on the battlement had a good time picking the stragglers up. Theon somehow made it all the way top before being knocked out. Jon was feeling particularly vindictive and with my egging, chopped off Theon's hands and legs. Even Luwin appeared to approve of it. Not having Geneva convention was a good thing. My CIA handlers would have a swell time here in this medieval world, I thought.

The ironborn attacking the Moat seemed to be rather smart – the moment they saw it was fortified, instead of attacking, they turned tail and ran off. They took off straight for Barrowton. Just like I hoped, Lady Dustin hadn't planned for a possible attack – the place was not properly fortified and was an easy taking for the raiders.

AN: _Barrowton doesn't fall either in the show or boot, but I decided to take it down. With the force supposed to assault Moat Cailin supplementing the one attacking Barrowton, they should be able to take an unprepared fortress easily, eh?_


End file.
